


A New Beginning

by seri-kun (vanijane)



Series: The Brave Snake (Gryffindor Draco AU) [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Friendship, Gryffindor Draco Malfoy, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7764397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanijane/pseuds/seri-kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Well, that was different – and may be different was a good thing. May be these people he could trust, they weren’t Slytherins and maybe there was some good in that.</i><br/>
<br/>
Draco is in a house he never wanted and he's alone but may be that's all going to change now - all he'll need is a little Gryffindor courage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Also on [**tumblr**](http://psychofluffy.tumblr.com/post/148916801829/fic-a-new-beginning-harry-potter-drarry). Based on [**this**](http://psychofluffy.tumblr.com/post/148832222844/i-am-tempted-to-write-in-the-verse-but-the).

Draco was distant.

He didn’t speak to his classmates or his fellow Gryffindors out of necessity and he completely ignored Granger. He still didn’t forgive her for what she did even though his weekly talks with Professor McGonagall did help alleviate some of his worries. He found that he couldn’t bring himself to trust anyone, this he realised on his own after one particular talk with his Head of House and she asked if he had made friends with his other classmates. He didn’t answer her and changed the topic to lessons, she obliged him but she wasn’t fooled.

Draco didn’t mind not having friends. He knew how his past relationships ended. Pansy actively made his life miserable whenever she could and Blaise, along with the other Slytherins, not only encouraged her but they also cheered whenever anything ill happened to him. He became somewhat of an expert at dodging and making himself scarce of the other students, whatever house they belonged to.

The Halloween Feast was coming up and everyone had been looking forward to it ever since Hagrid brought in the pumpkins. But Draco couldn’t find the cheer or excitement in him. At the Manor, Halloween had always meant sweets and desserts. Sometimes Mother would even throw a little party and Pansy and the others would be invited. They would stuff their faces with candy and chocolate without any reprimand from their parents.

It was a fond memory but that was all it was now, a mere memory. Ever since Father’s last letter, he received nothing else via owl. Nor did he ever see Titan ever again, then again he had been one of the family owls before Draco chose him to accompany him to school. Titan had never been really his.

He tried not to tune out Professor Flitwick’s discussion on levitation spells. Draco had already tried them before coming to Hogwarts with the help of Mother, so it more of a review for him but he hadn’t been doing very well with his spell casting lately. Madam Pomfrey said it was due to all the stress he was going through but Draco felt like it was personal, that he wasn’t capable of strong magical acts.

There was no surprise that as soon as they were told to practice casting that Granger was the first to levitate her feather. She sat in front of him and was paired with Weasley. Draco tried to ignore them, he had been doing a fantastic job of it these past weeks, but today they were being very difficult and very loud with their argument.

Draco managed to levitate his feather a few inches off the table when an explosion from Finnigan ruined his concentration and he couldn’t anymore levitate his feather. By the time class ended, Draco had shredded his feather and stayed behind to avoid the rush of students leaving the room.

He skipped on lunch and did as poorly during the afternoon Transfiguration class. He wasn’t surprised but he did feel a little bad when Professor McGonagall came over his seat and frowned at the beetle he was supposed to be turning into a marble.

It wasn’t until she called the class’ attention for the whereabouts of Granger that Draco noticed the know-it-all wasn’t there. No one seemed to know where she went and even when Draco overheard two of the Gryffindor girls whispering about how Granger was crying in a bathroom, he didn’t care. Whatever she did, she definitely deserved it.

Dinner was too festive of an affair but it only made Draco feel worse. When he tried to head to the common rooms after their last class, Percy found him and dragged him to the Great Hall. He did it every time, actually and Draco was starting to suspect that Professor McGonagall had told him to.

When Professor Quirrell ran screaming into the Great Hall about a troll in the dungeons, it had been Draco’s first animated reaction in a while. He screamed with the other students and panicked until Headmaster Dumbledore calmed everyone and gave out instructions.

Draco was one of the first Gryffindors behind Percy out of the hall, all too ready to get to the safety of the common rooms when he stopped and several second years pushed him away in their haste.

 _Granger_.

He hated her, he hadn’t forgiven her. But before he could even make sense of his thoughts, he was already sprinting down the hall and away from the rest of the students. When he passed by the group of Slytherin students, it was Millicent who said that she hoped he would be crushed by the troll. But he ignored her and continued on his way.

He wasn’t even sure if Granger was still crying in the bathroom but she wasn’t there at all during dinner. Despite what had happened to them at the Hospital Wing, Granger sat with the first years and she was hard to miss with her bushy hair.

When turned down the corridor, he didn’t expect to run into any students. It was dark and for a moment he hoped he bumped into Granger but when he looked, he found Potter and Weasley instead.

“What are you doing here?” Weasley demanded with a wince.

“Looking for Granger,” he answered curtly and got up to his feet. “She’d been crying and – I got worried.”

Potter and Weasley stared at him, he couldn’t blame them even if he found it very annoying. If he heard himself saying he was worried for Granger, he would be in shock, too.

“We don’t have time for this!” Potter exclaimed. “We need to find Hermione now!”

Then they felt the ground shake, followed by a snarl. Weasley let out a squeak that earned him a couple of shoves from Potter and Draco. Without any prompting, they pressed themselves to the wall as the troll came into view, slowly walking down the hall in front of them.

“It’s left the dungeon,” Weasley whimpered and in his fear, didn’t realise that he was gripping onto Draco’s arm.

“But trolls are stupid,” Draco muttered in confusion. There was no way a troll could get in Hogwarts in the first place and in this case, that it did get in, how did it ever get past the dungeons and got all the way here?

“The bathroom’s down that hall!”

Potter ran down the hall and Weasley followed suit while still holding on to Draco’s arm. Unwillingly, he was dragged to the very creature they were supposed to run away from. Draco was just about to pull his arm off Weasley’s grip when they stopped, hearing a loud scream.

“Hermione!”

All three boys suddenly found their conviction and stormed inside the girl’s bathroom. The bathroom stalls were broken to splinters and Granger was nowhere to be found.

“Hermione, move!” Potter yelled and Draco saw movement beneath the splinters and cracked wood.

He didn’t know what overcame him or if he had been thinking at all when he crouched down and took a large piece of broken wood and threw it at the troll.

“Distract it!” Draco yelled and all three of them began throwing debris at the troll while Granger crawled around it.

“Hey, pea brain!” The troll turned them as if understanding the insult and Weasley threw a well-aimed piece of wood on its forehead.

As the troll was distracted, Draco looked behind it to find Granger crawling under the sinks. But before she could get past the troll, it had spotted her and lifted its club nearly smashing through her.

“Help!”

Potter was the first to move, running towards the troll with his wand out. As the troll swung back its club, Potter held on to it and found himself straddling on the troll’s shoulders. The troll flailed wildly and in his attempt not to fall, Potter’s wand was lodged into the troll’s nostril.

“Do some –” Potter screamed as the troll resumed its flailing and managed to grab him by his leg, holding him upside down.

“Your wand!” Draco turned to Weasley and shook his shoulders. “Weasley! Use your wand!”

Weasley quickly took out his wand and pointed it helplessly at the troll, as if he didn’t know what to do with it.

“Swish and flick!” Granger had miraculously sounded calm despite the danger they were in to give a small lecture.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” Weasley exclaimed as he did the motions and just when the troll was about to swing its club down on Potter, the club slipped off its hands to levitate above it for a few seconds before barrelling down, knocking the troll on the head.

Potter fell on the ground, sprawled at an awkward angle on his knees, as the troll wavered on its feet to topple. Draco and Weasley quickly grabbed Potter by his cloaks and pulled him before the troll fell over him.

The fall caused the dust in the room to fly around and all four of them stood still, eyes on the troll in fear that it would move again. After a minute had passed with no movement, Granger and Potter slowly got to their feet and carefully approached the troll.

“Is it – dead?” Granger whispered cautiously.

“I don’t think so, just knocked out,” Potter answered after a moment of staring at the troll.

At his announcement, Draco found the energy to move his legs again and slowly approached the troll in mild curiosity and fear. When Potter leant down to take his wand, both Draco and Weasley jerked back as the troll let out a growl.

“Troll bogies.” Potter made a face and Draco couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“We just knocked down a troll and that’s what you’re worried about?” Draco laughed, bent over and clutching his stomach.

He felt giddy and alive inside – never mind that Potter, Weasley and Granger were giving him the oddest of looks. He laughed and may be even cried but it was the best thing he ever felt since the term started and he couldn’t stop himself.

“You’re bloody mad,” Weasley told him as Granger began to laugh as well, followed by Potter. He grinned as he looked around him and laughed, “we’re all bloody mad.”

“This is stupid,” Granger said in between laughs and panting.

The loud footsteps that were quickly getting louder as they got closer easily killed off their laughter. Draco straightened while Weasley stiffened as if the thought of getting caught by the professors was worse than a troll (which it probably was). Potter wiped the bogies off his wand using his outer robes and Granger tried to look calm.

Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell arrived in seconds all in different states of shock. At the sight of his godfather, Draco instinctively took a step back behind Weasley and bit his lip.

“Oh my goodness!” Professor McGonagall gasped and Draco felt bad as he watched her place one hand to her heart and another on the wall to keep her from falling. “Ex – Explain yourselves, all of you!”

She was looking at all three of them – Potter, Weasley and himself. But neither of them had exactly worked out an excuse or an explanation that they all ended up trying to answer her at the same time which only made McGonagall turn angrier.

“It’s my fault, Professor McGonagall,” Granger spoke up and the professors turned to her in shock while all three boys shared an incredulous look with each other as if to say ‘ _did she just do what she did_ ’.

“Miss Granger?” McGonagall looked and sounded like her world was falling apart.

“I went looking for the troll,” Granger answered smoothly and without a stutter. “I’ve read about them and thought I could handle it – but I was wrong.”

Granger flicked her eyes up to the three of them before turning back to Professor McGonagall, “if Harry, Ron and Draco hadn’t come and found me…I’d probably be dead.”

There was solemn silence in the air before Professor McGonagall began reprimanding them. She took away points from Granger but then awarded each of the boys points but not without reprimanding them, too.

It wasn’t until Professors McGonagall and Snape left that all four of them moved and were ushered out by Professor Quirrell, who told them to head straight to their common rooms.

As soon as they were out of earshot from any of the professors, however, Weasley snorted out a laugh and the rest of them joined in until they reached the common room.

That night, after so long, Draco slept with a grin on his face.

* * *

The next morning, Draco woke up starving. He hadn’t been eating properly ever since the term started and they took down a mountain troll last night, it was only natural that he would be. When he came down to the common room, he found Granger sitting on one of the armchairs head bent over a book.

They never had a proper change to talk last night, they had just been laughing and by the time they arrived at the common room, they had to stop themselves or else they would have to explain to several of their housemates what happened. Neither of them felt like doing so and instead retreated to their rooms but shared a secret grin before parting ways.

Draco decided it wouldn’t hurt to approach her and may be talk to her. There was a part of him that worried that may be he’d burnt all possible bridges with Granger but they had been laughing last night and that had to count for something – even a little bit.

“Granger.”

Granger jerked at the sound of his voice and looked up from her book, immediately closing it. “Draco, I – er, good morning.”

“Good morning, did you sleep well last night?” He asked politely though it felt the awkwardness between the both of them.

“Yes, and you?”

“It was better than the ones I’ve had recently,” he admitted and the conversation died down after that. No, he couldn’t let it end there – not yet. He tried again, “Granger, I’m – I guess I want to – what I’m trying to say is – last time at the… _darn it_.”

“Are you…are you apologising?” She blinked at him, getting to her feet.

“Uh…not…exactly? I mean, I shouldn’t have – you were only –”

Draco inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. This was difficult and awkward and he’s never apologised before. There was never a reason for him to be sorry about anything but this was Granger and after what she did last night, he liked her enough to feel bad about the way he yelled at her.

He opened his eyes and let out a small huff of breath, “okay – let’s agree that we both messed up. We feel bad about it but we’re even, so quits?”

Granger wore a small smile and extended her hand out, “friends?”

Draco blinked at the offer and swallowed. He felt tears prickling at his eyes but ignored them, blinking them away as he took Granger’s hand in his.

“F – Friends,” he smiled, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “That’s – thank you, Gra – _Hermione_.”

“You’re welcome, Draco.” She grinned.

“Oi, do you two have a secret handshake now?”

Both he and Hermione turned their heads to the stop of the stairs where Weasley and Potter had just come out from the dormitory, looking as they just threw on their robes without opening their eyes.

He turned to Hermione and shared a grin before they both replied, “may be.”

Both boys quickly made their way down the stairs to join them and Weasley yawned before giving them a suspicious look.

“There’s something going on between the both of you,” Weasley said.

“It’s nothing, Ronald,” Hermione smiled. “Draco and I are just friends now.”

“Friends?” Potter repeated, looking at all of them with a frown and for a moment Draco was worried that he’d be like everyone else –

“But I thought we were all friends? Wait, we aren’t friends?”

Draco blinked and answered slowly, “I guess…?”

“Mate, after last night, I think we’re all pretty much friends now,” Weasley shrugged then turned to Draco and crossed his arms. “Even if you’re a Malfoy, you’re not so bad.”

Draco smirked as he read between the lines and admitted, “you don’t seem so bad yourself – even if you _are_ a Weasley.”

“Wait just a moment, we’re all just starting to be friends now?” Potter frowned, turning to Draco. “I thought we were friends ever since that night!”

“What night?”

“That night – at the start of term, with the owl and I told you I’d see you tomorrow.”

“Oh, that night.”

“Yeah, but you…well, you were acting weird ever since so…”

Well, that was different – and may be different was a good thing. May be these people he could trust, they weren’t Slytherins and maybe there was some good in that.

“I had a lot to deal with,” Draco admitted quietly, averting his gaze before he realised it. He looked at them again, Hermione was giving him a small but encouraging smile and both _Harry_ and _Ron_ looked concerned.

He smiled, it was small but it was a step, and said, “but I think – I’m good now. Yeah.”

Ron made a sound almost like a hum and nodded. Draco suspected that he might know something. Different as they were, Ron came from a pureblood family and while the Weasleys didn’t follow the traditional ways, they knew how the purebred society went.

“Nothing like a good troll, yeah?” Ron joked and Harry snorted while Draco and Hermione rolled their eyes.

“We should head down for breakfast, we still have to finish our Potions homework – don’t give me that look, I’m sure neither of you even started yet.” Hermione turned to Draco, “have you finished yours?”

Draco smirked as he felt the even ground of safety and familiarity.

“Of course, I did,” he scoffed indignantly and Harry laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure McGonagall (and probably) Snape saw through Hermione's lie and was thinking, "oh shit - it looks like the second coming of the marauders merlin why".  
>    
>  In my head it's like: James = Harry, Remus = Hermione, Sirius = Ron & Draco, Peter = Draco. The last one only because Draco feels like he doesn't belong there, you know? But he's not going to go Dark like Peter, I don't think Draco in any verse (canon or otherwise) has the heart to betray his friends (unless his mother is threatened or something idk). And Sirius is both Ron and Draco because Ron's the best friend that Sirius was to James, but Draco's the guy who's the oddball in his family and gets adopted by his new friends.  
>    
>  I also suggest to those who want to stay tuned to this Gryffindor Draco series to subscribe to the series and not the individual fics - it's most likely that I would only make one shots. Thanks for reading!


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